[Air-l] Requesting Help: Blackberries and Mobility

[Andrew Herman]

Dear Friends-

I in the process of conceiving a major research project on the
Blackberry as metonym for mobile Internet communication. This wil be a
multi-dimensional project, involving research into the the development
of the Blackberry, the insitutional culture of production at Research in
Motion (based here in Waterloo, Ontario--how is that for convenience),
advertising and marketing strategies, intellectual property issues,, and
ethnographies of the Blackberry in everyday life.  What I have mind is a
comprehensive cultural analysis of the Blackberry like Paul Du Gay and
his collaboraties did for the Walkman in the DOING CULTURAL STUDIES
series.

So, I have two requests for the AOIR commmunity:

1)I would appreciate any references concerning the topic of Internet
mobility generally and the Blackberry and/or other hand-held device more
specifically.  

2)Depending on how fruitful the initial research is, I would be
interested in partnering with other scholars interested in this topic
with eye towards submitting a MCRI (Major Collborative Research Grant)
to the Social Science and Humanities Reserach Council here in Canada. 
The SSHRC encourages international collaboration, but the majority of
co-applicants must be affiliated with Canadian institutions. Let me know
if you are interested, especially if you are north of the 49th parallel.

Thanks in advance for your assistance and interest.

Andrew Herman

Andrew Herman, Ph. D.
Associate Professor
Department of Communication Studies
Wilfrid Laurier University
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3C5
CANADA
519 884-1970 x3693